I Tried $1 Street Food Around the World

[00:00] But if I just had $1, what could I get? China, Thailand, Mexico, India. scouring the world to find any bite to eat.

[00:15] Will we find massive culinary deals, or will we starve ourselves trying? and our first stop is not only under a dollar, It's fire, fire, fire paan!

[00:29] Which is not like a classical paan, but is a paan that everybody wants to try. is going to help you digest everything. Showing me around Mumbai's best $1 street food spots is my good friend,

[00:42] I can't even begin to explain how many ingredients were put into this, First, on a fresh betel leaf, the vendor adds a nut paste, That's more finger action than I think I've ever seen in my whole life.

[00:56] Shaved coconut, sweet masala, shaved nut, another sort of shaved nut, He then folds it up, adds more shaved coconut. Did he just put f*cking curing salt on that?

[01:08] Anyway, he gave it a light, which is likely edible camphor, and I opened wide. All right. Most people who were to see this online, they're like, "Oh,

[01:22] so there's no heat that you really sense at all. It kind of like sucks all the moisture out of your mouth and cleanses your mouth. And then you have all this sweetness from the rose,

[01:38] a bad way, sort of like a cleansing way. sometimes there's good things on the other side of fear, I'm ready to go on to the next.

[01:52] we went down to the beach to cool off with a sweet treat: a This was made fresh in front of my eyes. when you think of a breakfast plate in America,

[02:04] What if I told you you could get all of this for 70 cents? This is what makes the Gujarati community very proud.

[02:17] which is basically made with chickpea. You crack it, it has a bit of asafoetida, which is like the Indian ajinomoto.

[02:29] You have jalebi. We've got this papaya pickle and fried chilies. this is what we call a perfect bite because it has multiple layers.

[02:44] the burst of sugar, and then of course, all the layering of flavors. Like, I get the hype when I go to new places. like, "Oh, this is like the best, the best!"

[02:59] All the Gujaratis on Joshua's channel, raise your hands up. Woo! arguably one of the most popular street snacks in the country: Vada Pav.

[03:16] Mumbai is Vada Pav. And it's "Vada-Wow!" is what I like to call it. The guy who was assembling it was moving at lightning pace.

[03:30] Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom! Cheers! The first thing I notice is just the texture.

[03:42] It releases the air like the finest Tempur-Pedic pillow And then it just melts as you chew. Even just one of these is so filling.

[03:55] I'd pay $10. I'm going to be thinking about this when I go back home. That is a wrap on India.

[04:09] I was only there for a very short period of time. We hit so many other great places, like incredible street-side Pani Puri, and I had the greatest dosa I've ever eaten in my entire life at Benne.

[04:21] They let me get back in the kitchen to cook with them. although we have a lot of countries coming, to see if we can find anything for a dollar.

[04:37] we were shocked to find out that we could not find any American Yeah, that is no longer one dollar. But that's not really American food. It was okay.

[04:55] And there were other things that we found that were pretty good, So we leave New York for Bangkok, Thailand, finally... and it's considered one of the greatest street food cities in the world.

[05:09] We're here with my man Mark Wiens. It's called Trok Mor Market. People come here to buy basically all the ingredients you could possibly

[05:22] Let's begin. An entire It's like pregnant with water.

[05:35] Cheers! Back home, and this is literally the most hydrating thing I've ever drank in my life. So sweet! So refreshing!

[05:51] it actually bursts because of that pressure. a half-full coconut. slurping sound because there's nothing in there.

[06:04] As we were leaving for our next spot, shave the meat out, and then give it back to you. You're walking down the streets,

[06:16] Yeah, I'm going there. and he got some sticky rice for a dollar as well. If you added vegetables to this, this would be probably $15

[06:28] So that's crazy. Here, you take a piece. And I will eat that together with sticky rice because the combination is... So good. It's fatty, it's rich.

[06:41] unbelievable. I feel like a lot of the time with pork, you can easily mask the flavor. highlighting the flavor of the pork.

[06:54] like, this intense, like, savory garlickiness that just, I got nothing else to say. I love it. Dozens of tiny baby shrimp laid frozen in time in a crispy disk...

[07:09] I've always said, can't knock it till you try it... It has this condensed shrimp flavor because all the shells Anyone who's had, like, a strong fermented shrimp dish,

[07:24] It's a very sweet, light, fresh shrimp taste. It's actually like the classic chicken dipping sauce. This is honestly one of the best crispy little bites I've ever had.

[07:39] I probably wouldn't feel good after maybe 100, I would come to Thailand just to seek this out. I just spotted this while we were walking, and it just looks so good.

[07:51] You can smell the chives down the alley. Aroy? Aroy. The outside is so unbelievably crispy on the exterior,

[08:04] And you get little bites of the chive, which honestly isn't very strong. So at this point, we're pretty happy with what we've gotten. We got fried chicken with a sweet and spicy sauce.

[08:18] Thai crispy pancakes I was pretty shocked realizing how much you can get for My mind felt more deep-fried than those crispy shrimp fritters.

[08:32] We have coconut griddle cakes. and then he adds on thick coconut cream on the top. Going down the hatch.

[08:46] This is so good. And I love how it's crispy and custardy at the same time. There's not really much like this.

[08:58] The outside shell is so wispy, crispy, thin, crunchy. The sweetness... it's not really coming from sugar. Even if you don't like coconut, you're probably gonna like this.

[09:12] Moving on. We've been blown away... but there's even crazier to come with many more countries, The adventure has just begun. Next up, Japan.

[09:26] But fortunately, we had a secret weapon. He led our world's best noodles video, and like he does for a living, Starting in Osaka.

[09:40] When you eat it inside, Fried beef skewer, $1. Cheers! I think without the sauce, it's really, like, kind of plain.

[09:55] Texturally crispy, it melts in your mouth. There's a lot of textural involvement here. The sweetness, that Worcestershire flavor, it's nice.

[10:09] so people just order so many of them and you share them with friends. like, Next: we finally found it—wagyu katsu for exactly $1.

[10:25] This price is unheard of in America, especially when you see the word wagyu. We have menchi katsu. This is sizable. I did not need this information.

[10:38] I should also mention that this is a wagyu. This might be the one and only wagyu for a dollar that we're going to have. It's like an aftertaste of sweetness.

[10:51] It's basically like mashed up wagyu beef. meat after they cut it up, So they're making margin, but they're also charging less for it.

[11:04] I do wish there was, like, a bit more seasoning going on with it. Is this the best katsu you're gonna get? pretty dang good! But I wouldn't go out of my way for it.

[11:18] But after roaming for many more hours, and thus we move on to Tokyo! these cream-filled bears... pause.

[11:30] there weren't very many standouts at that price point, Here I'm joined by my friend Kim for an insider tour of a market can you tell us a little bit about this market in this neighborhood?

[11:44] They're a really famous market in Seoul. It's really authentic. My Korean is nonexistent.

[11:57] like literally at the front entrance—we found an absurd deal! These huge twisted donuts where we had two different kinds: an old-fashioned It's got a stretch to it! Woo-woo!

[12:10] It's a wheat dough. Cheers! I like the sugar and crisp on the outside, too. Maybe even a little chewier. I mean, better!

[12:24] Whoa! Almost like a fried chicken crunch. On the outside there's, like, these little knots and nodules of, like, But it also has a chew.

[12:38] Almost like if you were to take a donut and mochi and they had a baby. I'm falling in love right now! Get the rice one! That's my pick, 100%.

[12:51] I have never seen anything like this before, Or sometimes we call it odeng. I ate this a lot with my friends and my parents after school,

[13:08] The red hot tub. This is like a whole experience. Whoa! peppery... Mm!

[13:22] It's like a texture of, like, tofu skin, but a little bit more tender. This is phenomenal! I'm feeling full already!

[13:35] I'm gonna get in the whole hot tub now! Kim pointed out something that he felt was very important. I don't know if it's street food,

[13:48] The Mega Coffee. We're doing it! We're doing the $1 Americano! Yeah, I think this counts. Two thousand...

[14:01] Oh my god! Inflation! Inflation is occurring too quickly! All right, this doesn't count anymore, but at least it'll keep me going.

[14:17] And we're back on track to our final bites in Korea: some The kimchi one was fine, but could the red bean be a sleeper?

[14:30] Vic, I think you need to try this. The outside is soft and airy, the inside is smooth and almost creamy.

[14:42] We're climbing! And for a dollar, worth it. But we have another special person waiting for us in Hanoi, The vendor he was waiting with was hustling.

[14:58] It's a sticky rice dish. So if you don't get the fried egg, it's basically $1 even. And then you could add a number of different toppings.

[15:11] mung bean paste. And then for the xôi, they're shaving mung bean. Cheers! Wow.

[15:24] It's so perfectly chewy and al dente, and all the toppings go so well with it. You're gonna find this before noon all over the streets of Hanoi.

[15:37] you got carbohydrates, got healthy fats. This is phenomenal! I really like this one a lot. like, a little bit of a snack. Like in Japan, right?

[15:49] noon. So far! Well, we saw a bunch of other cool things, like spotted fried bananas,

[16:02] double fried, served hot. But what about banh mi for under a dollar? Could it actually be good at the low, low price of 80 cents?

[16:16] It has beef jerky in it, it has fried potato, and it has nem. And in fact, it's never been cooked, but it kind of ferments and cures, The end result is something that is very sweet and sour.

[16:30] I'm curious what you notice as being very different from banh mi in the US, doughy. But here, it's just pure crispiness. and it kind of wraps around the ingredients perfectly.

[16:44] Cheers! The Vietnamese really love sweet food. If you try this alone, Oh, wow! It's literally like candied beef jerky.

[16:59] It is so almost blindingly sweet. and kids would be very happy. And they have this great, just, like, bouncy chew.

[17:14] and I actually do like this one just slightly more. the potato does help diffuse that sweetness. But off in the distance, I smelled something.

[17:27] Charcoal grilled pork! Nice little charred bits on it.

[17:40] I saw it yesterday, and I wanted to try it real bad. We can edit around that, I believe. You can also have this in a banh mi bread for about a dollar,

[17:54] which is pretty badass. Something good is gonna be at that smoke. They're making meat.

[18:06] there's whole spices, and there's sugar and fish sauce inside. It's kind of a theme throughout the day, whether it's something for dessert or not. The sugar grants it a little extra char because the sugar generally

[18:22] And a lot of people, they think, "Oh, well, that burnt sugar is helping carry over some of that smoke from You can eat many of them, have them in a banh mi...

[18:36] Vietnam's dollar street food hit every box from breakfast to But can they hit it with dessert? Apparently, Just 20 cents each.

[18:49] even setting up in front of the original shop. This is almost too much disrespect. It was the perfect final bite in Vietnam.

[19:01] Wouldn't have been able to do this without you. I wish I had more time in Vietnam, but I'm even more excited to see what the final three countries have in store.

[19:14] home to one of the most unique food cultures in the world. So our guide, Jarvis from Best Food Malaysia, I was shocked to look up and see a Michelin Bib Gourmand sign.

[19:30] egg, They're essentially just moving these around at an absurd pace so that they It checks our price point, but does it pass the taste test?

[19:44] it's like the most tender crepe pancake texture. It melts in your mouth, and the outside edges are like a lacy, it's like the filet mignon of a thin pancake in a way.

[19:56] What I love about it is this light, fragrant, just coconutty flavor. This is like a perfect little breakfast taco. That's a good sign. Mm!

[20:10] How is that even possible? This one is nice if you want to have, like, a heartier breakfast, Flashback to shaved ice on the beach in India.

[20:24] Shockingly, pretty good. you gotta have the vermicelli." I was not a huge fan of the texture, Not quite as good as the famous Michelin Bib Gourmand-rated Nyonya sweets.

[20:38] topped with sweetened coconut. but I really want to focus on the next dish. So this is putu mayong, where it's very local

[20:50] comes with some coconut and then two kinds of brown sugar, The rice flour is pandan-flavored. rice flour dough that they put into a press...

[21:04] I thought, "Oh, I could do this easy!" Yeah! Yeah! And then they threw it away and started over,

[21:17] I want a little more. Mm. Wow! Every bite is a little different. You're getting a little bit of salty from the darker brown sugar,

[21:30] and then just such a great fragrance from the coconut. How many calories is this? It's like one of those things that tastes familiar,

[21:43] Before we left, we had to try these 50-cent noodles. Shockingly amazing flavor for the value. Next up, you haven't seen in a while. Mexico City!

[21:58] And let me tell you something, I didn't have a single bad bite. while one $1 street food is a bit different, I'm feeling Mexico City will impress, especially since we're back with Gaby,

[22:13] And like magic, let's do more of that! Oh God, I love Mexico City! Gaby's off grabbing something.

[22:26] She's just walking around in this random flower market just selling churros. insane! They're so perfectly crisp.

[22:38] The inside is almost custardy, which is hallmark of a great churro. They've got a little saltiness to amplify the flavor. It's sweet.

[22:52] And honestly, I'm not even missing it. This is crazy! Later that night, we grabbed some very classic guisado. He's literally throwing the food in the air and catching it with the tortilla.

[23:06] These tacos were only 65 cents each, and they're not skimpy, okay? The biggest pastries I've ever seen in my life for only 92 cents each.

[23:18] but Mexico's bread and pastry game is on another level. They were all tasty, but they weren't my favorite of the trip. But let's talk about the stars of the show

[23:32] Only Gaby could find one worth eating that's this cheap. Very classic pastor, and enough meat! Like, That's the insane value.

[23:46] Should we just go in? God, it's an amazing taco! I hate when you get an al pastor and it's dry.

[24:00] It's seasoned perfectly with salt. perfectly sweet. Great texture. I mean, that's a good deal.

[24:14] Moving on. We are at La Rosa de Oro, The Golden Rose. It was born in 1957, and it's very deep into the neighborhood, We're here because of my friend Yorch.

[24:29] We just wanted you to have very classic suadero with one of the They're small, but yet they're full of meat, Even if it's sub-$1. And it's spicy!

[24:47] I can see why it's been standing so long, since 1957. It's got the perfect mix of different kinds of textures. It's meaty, it's unctuous.

[25:00] Absolutely no distracting flavors. Chewy and delicious. Phenomenal. You serve this in America and you're going to get like a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

[25:14] Hundreds of hours of traveling and eating the greatest $1 street food in the world. We're ending things in one of the largest countries in the world, but something in my heart is telling me this might be the best stop we have.

[25:31] one of the most well-known and prolific food writers in Shanghai, which usually has a crunchy wonton-type shell in there. But will it be even better in China?

[25:47] It totals out to about $1.10—$1.20, still in the dollar threshold. but you can find jianbing all over China. One is like a tianmian jiang, which is made by fermented bean paste,

[26:04] It's actually a really nice sort of building warmth to it. they have this more expensive one with all this But I think what I love about this is how good it is at being simple,

[26:16] it hits everything you want. It's kind of all you need to kick off your morning. Next up: scallion pancakes, made in a style I've never seen before.

[26:30] It's crispy, flaky, fatty. But now we leave Shanghai for Chengdu, home of what we call Sichuan-style food.

[26:42] is starting us off with breakfast. But not just any breakfast. A Sichuan-peppercorn-laced breakfast called guokui. This one is the baked version—just baked. What's inside of it?

[26:55] The second version, they stuff it with pork or beef. and then they pan-fry it—shallow fry it till crispy and then Yeah, correct.

[27:09] The pork one, because you're must savor the crunch. It's almost like citrusy, lemony, and then you taste that flavorful,

[27:21] If you cannot taste very fresh peppercorn, it means it's no good. But what I love about the inside is, like, more tender than a croissant, Almost like a really, really thin, thin cracker.

[27:35] It's fragrant. Should we jump to the brown sugar? The density of this is almost like the texture of,

[27:48] it's not like any normal brown sugar that you might be used to. It's been liquefied in the baking process. you have a liquid-state essentially brown sugar—sugar syrup.

[28:03] It almost has like a little bit of an umami from it. So we're walking down the street to our next location. you pay one fee and then you eat as much as you can until you leave this buffet.

[28:19] I wish that that fit our $1 rule, That just goes to show how far the dollar stretches here in Chengdu, I did find out that if you are under the age of four,

[28:35] So it does become all-you-can-eat for $1. I can't think of anywhere on Earth that has this kind of value. our final stop is unlike anything I've ever seen in my entire life.

[28:50] I mean the situation, the environment, how we found the food. This is a random security guard outside of a normal old apartment complex

[29:03] making some of the greatest noodle and dumpling dishes I've ever had. across the country of China. It blows my mind. Rich, crisp, seasoned perfectly.

[29:16] Similar to the dumplings, but much lighter, And finally, the beef noodles. Again, perfectly seasoned, a little spicy,

[29:31] I understand that this item is just slightly over a dollar, This place is a perfect example of what this video is all about.

[29:43] Sometimes the greatest food in the world is in the most unexpected places. So I want to give a little peer behind the curtain for who made this possible. He was the one who guided us around the world to find these places in random,

[29:57] It was such a wonderful experience, Respect the people that host you when you travel, So he does this type of stuff privately for people,

[30:10] He also wants other people to experience this. that you can go and follow, you can go and find. But I have one last thing to say.

[30:23] We flew around the entire circumference of the Earth to film this one video. Having to leave family at a time of need, rushing and barely making planes, trains, taxis.

[30:35] Yes, the food was world-class, but this told a much greater story to me. It wasn't the insane value of the food we ate that blew me away, I had my own nerves and concerns about seeing this many random people I've

[30:51] And they accepted us with open arms. sat down with us, ate with us. no matter how different the cultures happen to be,

[31:04] they search to find something delicious to eat and maybe cook a little bit too. We walked away with something I would call priceless.